Clarence Thomas Advocated for Higher Court Salaries, Speaking Fees: Report

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas privately advocated for a higher salaries and for the court to permit justices to accept speaking fees, a new ProPublica report says.

After a decade on the bench, Thomas' remarks to a conservative lawmaker he sat next to on a flight signaled that he was considering resigning if he was not given a pay raise. At the time, he was making the equivalent of $300,000 today.

That lawmaker, former Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., later wrote a letter pledging to "look into" raising the justices' salaries.

Thomas' concerns, aided by' financial strains, continued for years and the justice later began to privately push for the court to permit justices to make paid speeches, which had been banned in the 1980s.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., inserted a stipulation lifting the ban in a mid-2000s spending bill, but it never passed.

Thomas has more recently come under scrutiny after a separate ProPublica investigation revealed the justice accepted undisclosed gifts from billionaire Harlan Crowe, including travel, tuition money and international trips. Thomas disclosed the gifts following the investigation's publication and the Supreme Court adopted an ethics code in light of the criticism.